“I wish to Heaven there were no such things as At Homes,” she said wearily. “Oh, how they bore me!”
“You used to like them well enough,” said Mrs. Heywood.
“I have grown out of them. I have grown out of so many things. It is as if my life had shrunk in the wash.”
“Nothing seems to please you now,” said the old lady. “Don’t you care for your friends any longer?”
“Friends? Those tittle-tattling women, with their empty-headed husbands?”
Mrs. Heywood was silent for a moment. Then she spoke bitterly.
“Do you think Herbert is empty-headed?”
“Oh, we won’t get personal, mother,” said Clare. “And we won’t quarrel, if you don’t mind.”
Mrs. Heywood’s lips tightened.
“I am afraid we shall if you go on like this.”